


Take Our Heart

by Arsoemon



Series: Daybreakers Month [3]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Angst and Feels, Canon Related, Canonical Character Death, Daybreakers Month, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Physical Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23250700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsoemon/pseuds/Arsoemon
Summary: Week 3: Heist
Series: Daybreakers Month [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654576
Kudos: 7





	Take Our Heart

“Status update,” Joker whispers to himself, and the others hear as if they have ear pieces. That’s one part of the Metaverse he still doesn’t fully understand. Sure there’s the whole matter of cognition that makes their very movements in these spaces possible—all you have to do is believe and such. Just getting in here would’ve been out of the question without that; no one can jump that high. But he can’t deny the vague discomfort from just how much they’re leaving to chance by relying on something they know so little about.

“Panther, high left.”

“Skull, wingmanning.”

“Fox, in the rear.”

There’s snickering through the imaginary ear pieces. “G.... dammit....” Ryuji nearly doubles over.

“You guys!” Panther whisper yells.

Joker clears his throat. “Skull, c’mon. Let’s,” he fights off another laugh. “Let’s be serious.” He clears his throat again, and he and Skull slowly regain their composure as they continue to await Mona’s signal.

“Fox, ya good back there?”

“It is exceptionally warm, uncomfortably tight, and unsettlingly moist,” Skull is first to crack. “But this view... divine,” he breathes out, and even Panther lets a small laugh slip which makes Joker lose it again.

“Will you guys get serious? What’s so funny anyway?” Mona creeps further in, surveying the scene.

“It’s a good day,” Joker pulls at his gloves, shaking his head as he continues to smile.

“Hm. Can’t argue with that.” Mona scales a column and lands the leap to the balcony. “Heh heh, you all are so lucky to learn from a master like me.”

“What do you see?” Panther continues to crouch on her high perch.

“Clear so far. Almost too clear.”

“Do proceed with caution,” Fox warns.

Joker slips through the deep shadows clinging to the walls to make it to the door. When he picks open the lock, he nods to himself and gives the order to move. “Forward.”

Fox launches himself out of the vent on the high wall and darts from wall to bookcase to oversized vase, opting to stealth through the shadows as well. Panther runs to a nearby chandelier and uses her whip to swing to the door as Skull hits a dead sprint to get there.

They reach the courtyard and watch Mona scurry across the long balcony. He gives the all clear, and they follow with ease. “Okay. We’re near our last safe room. Joker, it’s all you.” Mona stops to look to their leader. He walks with a confident stride as the others file in behind him.

“Well done,” Joker pats Mona’s head as he passes. “Everyone keep with me. I have a feeling this will be the day.” They all nod and follow, calm and collected though their defenses are still up.

After holding up a few shadows for money and healing potions, they reach the biggest door in the highest portion of the building.

“Two trips? Man, this is too easy,” Skull unfolds his arms as he and Fox push open the doors. The doors swing in to reveal a massive circular room adorned with luxurious furniture, Persian rugs, and gold frames around paintings that make Yusuke’s tail wag ever so slightly. “Hey,” Skull nudges Joker. “Think we can sell all this?”

“We can’t even carry all this,” Panther gazes up at the gold plated, chandeliered ceiling. Their attention is drawn sharply to Mona leaping around a heavily jeweled box next to a scarlet chaise lounge.

“Here it is! The treasure!” he practically drools. Joker feels uneasy and is just reaching forward to pull him away when Mona lands on top of the box, a contented purr filling the room. The other four steel themselves as the decadence melts from the wall to reveal the inside of a decrepit stone tower. Joker is wondering where he’s seen a place like this before when he’s hit by the sensation of falling.

He lands face-down in a heap, the fall softer than he’d expected but still quite hard. He raises his head and gazes around the small space before a jangling catches his attention. His eyes dart from the bed to his chained wrists to the bars before him. The Velvet Room, he realizes with a half-comforted groan. He pushes himself up into a kneel as he looks for the twin wardens who usually would’ve verbally assaulted him by now. In their place are his parents. His mother is weeping bitterly, father frowning deeply, a look startlingly close to hatred in his eyes.

He throws himself at the bars. “Mom! Dad!” They continue to weep and scowl as if he said nothing at all.

“Oh Akira, how could you?” His mother looks at him then. “Such hatred and disrespect in your heart! I thought you loved me.” She turns away from him and continues to cry.

“I do!” He clenches the bars in protest.

“Then what could possess you to attack an innocent man?! Your heart is filled with hatred. You are a bad person,” his father shakes his head.

“I was only trying to help!” he pleads with a trembling voice. “I didn’t even do anything. He was going to hit me, so I stepped out of the way and he fell.” His mother’s sobs intensify, his father’s scowl deepens.

“And now you lie? There truly is no good in you.”

•

Skull pushes himself up, taking extra care not to agitate his leg. He’s just starting to take in his surroundings when a door behind him opens and two large figures block the light, their shadows hitting the far wall and grabbing his attention.

He turns and is immediately met with a fist to the face. The hit knocks him off his feet, and he looks up incredulously. “Hey! What the hell, man!” The rest of his words die in his throat as the scene sets in.

There’s a man by the metal cell door—Kamoshida. He pulls the door shut with a grotesque grin, and Skull’s blood boils. But the familiar yet distorted laugh from the man closer to him kills his rage almost instantly.

“D-dad?”

•

Panther dusts herself off and makes sure everything is in its right place before looking up. There are metal bars separating her from a large dark mass. As she approaches, she can begin to make out individual sets of eyes, all trained sharply on her.

_There’s Kamoshida’s girl_. A mouth forms beneath one set of the eyes. _What’s so good about her?_ Another forms. _Do you think she’s easy? Are those even real? Wow way to show off. She’s so dumb. She better stay away from my boyfriend._

On and on the mass writhes with its venomous words. Panther tries to convince herself she no longer cares about this stuff. “Sticks and stones...” she whispers, not allowing herself to dwell on the falseness of the saying.

A hand reaches to grasp the bar. Then another. And another. Soon they’re reaching through the bars trying to grab at her. Her revulsion at the sight pushes her further back into the cell, and she seems to be safe. But as more hands grab the metal, she can hear it groaning and see it bending ever so slightly under the weight.

•

Fox takes in the room before him all at once: a Murphy bed, sink and toilet, metal bars. A cell. But the door is ajar. He slips through the small opening, careful not to move it at the risk of making noise. He steps out into a long, dark hallway with the tiniest pinprick of light at the other end. Seeing no other way, he huffs internally and follows the hall.

The light grows with each step yet somehow maintains the same brightness. When he sees the doorway from which the light seems to emanate, he stops and narrows his eyes, trying to make out the figure within. The golden light casts a soft haze around what looks to be a woman. The vision floating in the doorway floods his senses. A lovely Sakura branch cutting across the space behind her, the striking shade of red against her pale skin. This is certainly the Sayuri. But she’s frowning as she gazes down at an empty blanket.

“M-mom?” The woman begins to cry into the blanket where her baby once was. Fox rushes forward, wanting to comfort her. Before he can reach her, he is grabbed up like a small child and turned to face his captor.

“You,” he growls weakly at the man looking at him. The man laughs, and Fox can feel a shift inside himself as if his energy is being drawn forward and out. The man puts him on the ground and walks to stand between him and the woman. She falls to her knees trembling; the man only watches. “No!” Yusuke runs forward but hits an invisible wall. The man laughs at both mother and son struggling. “Help her, or I’ll-“

“What could you possibly do? Would you truly forget your debts and assault the man who has given you this life? Besides, what recourse do you have now that you’ve so graciously offered your power up to me?”

It’s then that Yusuke realizes he’s no longer in his thief costume; he can’t feel his persona nearby. The man’s laugh returns.

•

Akira’s parents had finally decided he was no longer worth the trouble and left him sniveling on the ground some time ago. He leans limply against the bars, too crushed to move.

“Joker?” echoes around the room. He can’t place the voice, but it’s childlike, one he hears every day. Then, a strong voice booms in his head.

_Do these charlatans truly sound like your parents? When has your mother ever guilted you this way?_

Is that... Arséne? “But she did cry when we talked about it.“

_At the injustice of this world, yes. What did she tell you?_

“The world can label me all they want, but... I’m still her boy.”

_And your father?_

“People often face persecution for doing what’s right.”

_Precisely. They believed you. Worried about you and what this world may do to you, but believed you. Now, what will you do? Are you so faithless as to believe the lies attempting to take root in your heart?_

A yell rips through the room. Joker lifts his head at the sound, and the familiar warmth of his mask materializing brushes across his emboldened face and flows through his limbs. The metal in his grip shatters.

•

Skull is trying his best not to cower in the corner, but he can’t seem to fight the two monsters looming over him. His body is tired and shaking, mind slipping between this reality and mashed up, anachronistic memories. He just wants this to be over already.

Suddenly, he hears steady footsteps. A calmness creeps into his mind, and all goes quiet except for a lone voice.

_If you wish for this to end so badly, leave._

“How? They won’t let me.” He flinches away from the grinning figures.

_Ha!_ Let? _Since when do you require permission to act?_

“Since... I-I can’t fight _him_.”

_You couldn’t then. You were small and had to be good for your mother. And where is she? Not here.Not in the presence of this lowlife. Safe. Now what is there to stop you?_

A rush of energy flashes through him as the mask reforms on his bloodied face. The figures look confused as Skull rises to his feet, fists clenched, his own wicked smile stretching across his face.

•

Panther is struggling to find an escape route as the metal partition bows in, seconds away from snapping completely. She looks to the back of the crowd-like mass and sees the humanoids parting for a dark figure. Joker! Her heart leaps at the realization.

_Oh, poor damsel. Locked away, waiting so long for a prince to come and save her._

“Excuse me?” She rests her hands on her hips, looking left at nothing in particular in annoyance.

_There is nothing wrong with relying on those closest to you in your time of need. But he cannot save you from this. He cannot free you from the confines of your own battered heart._

“So I really am all alone.”

_Not at all. Think of your parents. They cannot always be with you, but do they love you any less? Does their faith in you mean nothing?_

“No.”

_And your friends, do you see their faces among this mass? Are they jealous, lustful gossips like the swarm you see before you?_

“No. They see me for who I am. They’re a little dumb sometimes, but they wouldn’t hurt me.”

_Then what are you waiting for?_

“Well, the door.”

_Open it._

“I can break this door by myself?”

_Have you not done it before? You know well what strength is and that you possess it. Now, my dear, shall we dance?_

Panther steps up to the bars, and the grabbing hands retreat. A fire incinerates the metal and the gossipers nearest to it as a much gentler fire glides over her triumphant expression.

•

The sound of footsteps penetrates Yusuke’s grief against the invisible wall, his mother’s death an endless loop before him. “Fox.” He glances weakly behind him. Joker? But he’s so far away, and it’s taking everything in him to even hold himself up like this.

_Have you forgotten all your lessons?_ A voice thunders through his mind. _Has this chapter not already been closed?_

“It has been mere weeks since I learned how she perished,” he argues pitifully.

_That is not the issue. You must take your time and grieve your losses the way you need to grieve them_. The voice says more gently. _I am asking after the him, the one who caused all of your strife. Did we or did we not already defeat him?_

“We did.”

_So what makes you believe he still has power over you?_

“After all he has done, I cannot hate him. I cannot forget that there were good things about life then as well.”

_Nor should you. Allowing him to rouse you to pure hatred differs little from being complacent with his misdeeds. This old man is weak, why else would he prey on a child? He may have stolen everything from your past, but your future is yours to create._

Yusuke—as Fox—feels a biting cold flowing through his veins and the warmth of the blue flame licking over his steely gaze. He traces his fingers over the smooth surface of the barrier with a cold precision, staring at the man before him unflinchingly as the wall shatters.

•

They reconvene in the underground walkway. “There you are! Where did you guys go?! I thought I was the only one to make it out!” Morgana meows to the teens towering over him. His fussing is cut short by each of their expressions, eyes haunted and a bit red as if they’d recently been wiped clear of tears. But they look more determined than ever before.

Wordlessly, Akira holds up the item in his hand before the group, and the others slowly follow suit. A photograph for him. A watch for Ryuji. A small drawing for Ann. A key for Yusuke. 

A palace with four separate treasures. Morgana is dying to ask about the meaning of each, but as they all pocket the items, he decides to wait for some other time.


End file.
